Ice

This means that ice can form on a pond and float on the water below. Thus, if the ice is thick enough, we can skate on it whilst the fish continue to swim in water below.

Ice plays a major role in producing the rain and snow that falls from the clouds in our latitude, giving us the all year round water that enables our crops to grow.

In the rain bearing clouds that drift in from the Atlantic, or in towering cumulonimbus that form in the Summertime heat, the temperature can range from +20°C to - 40°C. Water can exist in liquid form at temperatures below freezing and co-exist with ice crystals. In many respects, it is the ice crystals that allow the clouds to grow and produce rain.

This process, known as the Bergeron-Findeison Theory, works as follows. When super cooled water droplets and ice crystals co-exist in a cloud, the former tend to evaporate and form a deposit on the ice. The ice crystals grow in size and number and collide with each other, eventually forming snowflakes.

When these grow large enough they fall out of the cloud. On most occasions in this country, they melt on the way down, and reach the ground as rain.

Black ice
A phrase commonly heard in the UK is 'black ice'. This refers to a frost that produces a thin transparent layer of ice on the roads. Hence you can see the colour of the road surface, which is normally a dark colour, through the ice. If the road surface was orange then it would be an orange frost. Black ice is particularly dangerous because by seeing the colour of the road you think there is no layer of ice on it.

Ice and climatology

...an ice core can contain detailed climate recordings for thousands of years.
As far as Climatologists are concerned, ice is probably the single most important element in trying to decipher the weather over the past centuries. It is only in the last few hundred years that Meteorologists have had reliable instruments to measure weather conditions, but an ice core can contain detailed climate recordings for thousands of years.

By looking at the composition of the ice, the pollen that is trapped in it, and the gaseous content, we can have a very good idea of what the climate was like and how it has changed.

So take extra care when the roads and pavements are icy in the winter, but remember that without this solid form of water we may not be able to live in this wonderful country of ours.